Geological veins are sheet-like formations of crystallized minerals found within rock. Geological veins form within rock as water carries these minerals through the ground, depositing them within the rock. The mineral deposits of geological veins often include precious metals, such as gold, silver, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, uranium, and iridium, as well as gemstones, such as chrysoberyl, quartz, beryl, garnet, moonstone, apatite, diamond, spinel, tanzanite, tourmaline, topaz, and zircon.
Due to their nature, most geological veins lay underground and their detection from aboveground remains difficult. Determining whether a geological vein possesses valuable metals requires costly excavation and extraction of the mineral deposit, followed by laboratory testing. Imaging spectroscopy (also referred to as hyperspectral remote sensing) is a technology that has been utilized with success for mapping vegetation and mineral abundances over many areas of the Earth's surface using reflected sunlight.